A lot of Tablet PC and Ultra-Mobile PC users are really in to productivity solutions, so it should be of no surprise to hear Tablet users sing the praises of David Allen's Getting Things Done method of time management.

GottaBeMobile.com forum member Steve Beller just let us know that NetCentrics has released a much anticipated update for Getting Things Done Outlook Add-In users. Version 2.5.21 enables the GTD Outlook add-in to work with Outlook 2007. It is important to note that the GTD add-in is not supported on Vista, but they will be releasing another update in Q2 2007 for that compatability. That said, I've installed the add-in on my Vista install and all appears to be running fine at the moment.

If you use the GTD add-in to help manage your time and tasks, and you've recently upgraded to Outlook 2007, then head over to the GTD site and download the update. The update is free.

If you are interested in learning more about the add-in and how it helps to implement David Allen's Getting Things Done method, then check out the product page here. The add-in costs $69.95 and there is a trial version available.

We have talked about him in the past, but the Microsoft OneNote Blogger Daniel Escapa is constantly putting up tips for using OneNote 2007.  If you aren't following him, go check out what he has been posting the past couple of days...

Shift Click on a Notebook

Create Section from a list

OneNote iFilter for a SharePoint Server

Some great pointers and tips - Add him to your RSS feed if you haven't already!!

Well, my first day of demoing Vista and Office 2007 is over. As soon as 10:00 hit, I could see lots of folks headed back to the Microsoft Vista / Office 2007 software shelves to get their copy of Vista. Best Buy reps told me that the morning is normally not busy, but because of the Vista launch, they had gotten a lot more traffic.

I was surprised to see the Vista Ultimate Signature Edition on sale as well. I didn't expect to see it. I probably talked with 20 or so folks, most just wanting see what was different, and needing help figuring out the difference between Home Premium and Ultimate. As I demoed things like parental controls, Aero, 3d Flip, Word, etc, I heard the word "wow" a lot. After a couple of hours the main stocking shelves were completely empty of Ultimate and Home Premium. There was a lot of Home Basic left.

I even got to meet a GBM reader! After reading where I was going to be at Best Buy today, Danny stopped by to see Vista and talk Tablet PC and UMPC! Thanks for coming by, Danny!

Here are some more pictures:

Unless you’ve been in a cave, under a rock, or doing a Rip Van Winkle over the last year or so, you know that the consumer release of Microsoft’s Vista and Office 2007 has finally occurred or is about to depending on your time zone.

We’ve already seen reams of digital and conventional ink written about Vista and Office 2007, good and bad. I’m sure over the next few months we’ll see much more, good and bad. We’ve experienced release delays, bad info, good info, corrected info, betas, Release Candidates, silly naming conventions (no I still won’t use the small ‘s’), and the ever increasing cry of “Where are the drivers?” There has even been a Vista Song. It has been quite a ride. Intriguingly in the immediate run-up to the release we haven’t seen that much Office 2007 coverage as the bright spotlight seems to be on Vista.

Here at GottaBeMobile.com we’ve been experimenting with the various releases of Vista and Office 2007 and most of the team has been running Vista on one machine or the other since RTM last fall. We’ve left a lot of blood on the bleeding edge. Along the way we’ve produced a number of Inkshows of the various Tablet PC and mobile features. We’ve also written quite a few posts regarding our thoughts.

Here is a list of the Vista and Office 2007 related Inkshows, as well as some of the posts that I find intriguing as I look back.

Enjoy!

Inkshows

• Vista and Tablet PCs-A Pen Flick Inkshow
• Vista TIP Software Inkshow
• Vista Handwriting Personalization Inkshow
• Vista Snipping Tool Software Inkshow
• Adaptive/Multi-Touch Hardware Inkshow
• GBM Inkshow: Taking The Vista Flip
• OneNote 2007 Beta 1 Inkshow
• OneNote 2007 Import and Search Inkshow
• Audio Inkshow with Chris Pratley
• On The Road with OneNote Mobile

Posts

• Improving Handwriting Recognition in Vista
• Vista and Ink – a missed opportunity
• What I’m loving about Vista
• Beginning To Fall In Love With Office 2007 On My Tablet PC
• Vista Speech Recognition Redeemed
• The Windows Vista Song
• Vista Power Profiles – Great for the Tablet PC
• Rob Chambers gives answers on the speech reco resolution issue
• Vista’s UAC: Is The Cure As Bad As The Disease?
• A Look at the Mobility Center
• Vista Speech Recognition Ups The Volume
• Vista Tablet PC Tips from the Tablet PC Team
• Vista and Office 2007 to be available for download, new upgrade prices
• Office 2007: Where Did That Command Go?
• The Office 2007 UI Bible

The Vista and Office 2007 launch is in full swing. Here’s a video of some of the shenanigans taking place in New York with a series of dancers doing their thing on the side of a building. Who thinks up this stuff?

In the latest episode of the "On the Run with Tablet PC's #34" Podcast, James Kendrick and Mark Orchant briefly discussed Marc's new book, "The Unofficial Guide to Microsoft Outlook 2007".  If you have followed Marc's blogging and general online presence, you will know that he is an excellent technology writer, as well as all around good geek!

Marc knows this product, and as an extremely mobile worker and Tablet PC MVP, you can bet it will answer a lot of the questions you have as you move to this new version of Outlook 2007.  Covering everything from the simple management of tasks to handling incoming email, Marc will take you on a fast track to learning a tool that is the basis of so many mobile workers day to day use of a mobile PC.  There is a lot of new things in Outlook 2007, and I am quite sure will do a good job covering them!

I am looking forward to doing a nice review of this book as soon as Marc sends me the autographed (free) copy for my enjoyment! 

Head over to Amazon and preorder your copy. 

Lets' hope that Microsoft has been pumping up those download pipes, because when Vista and Office 2007 are released on January 30, customers will be able to buy and download the software from Microsoft, who announced the program late Wednesday evening.

In addtion to announcing the new download options, there is word on MSNBC.com regarding upgrade pricing, including a new option, called the Windows Vista Family Discount, to allow consumers to upgrade up to two other pc's to Home Premium for $50 a copy if they have already purchased a retail copy of Vista Ultimate or upgraded via Windows Anytime Upgrade. This is initially available in North America ( U.S. and Canada).

 On January 30, you can go here ( broken link right now ) for more info on the Family Discount Program. On January 30, you can go here to purchase and download Vista and Office 2007.

Originally found on MSNBC.com, more details on Microsoft's Nick White's blog:

For those who do buy Vista the normal way, Microsoft is launching a new program that makes it easier to upgrade from one edition of the operating system to another.

Here’s how that will work. For consumers, Vista will come in four flavors, Home Basic, which retails for $199, Home Premium ($239) Business ($299) and Ultimate ($399). Though consumers will pick one version when they buy a computer, higher versions will be embedded on the machine’s hard drive or packaged on discs that come with it.

Anyone who wants to move up the chain — from Home Basic to Home Premium for another $79, Home Basic to Ultimate ($199), Home Premium to Ultimate ($159), or Business to Ultimate ($139) — will be able to click a new “Windows Anytime Upgrade” function, pay for the upgrade online and then receive a coded license “key” that will unlock the more expensive edition.

Microsoft also plans a promotion that will let buyers of Vista Ultimate get $50 copies of Home Premium for two other PCs.

Are you getting ready to make the transition from Outlook 2003 to Outlook 2007? If so you probably want to grab this article on making the transition by Michael Linenberger. Michael is the author of Total Workday Control and Seize the Workday, two excelllent resources on how to get the most productivity out of your Outlook productivity. To help you make the transition to Office 2007 he’s authored a pretty comprehensive article that uses his methodology while making the switch. Check it out here.

Hat tip to Marc Orchant.

There is a lot of talk around the internet regarding backward compatability for Office 2007 document formats. With Office 2007, comes a brand new document format and frustrations for users.

Since a lot of folks are dowloading the trials and beginning to share those documents, I thought a post on this issue would be in order.

Carrying a lot of voice this week is the compatability issues for folks ( like me! ) who use Office 2004 for Mac. Microsoft’s Mac Business Unit has announced that they will not be coming out with a compatability filter until the middle of 2007. In addition, there is also the issue of Office 2003 and Office XP users. Fortunately for them, there are at least viewers available. CNET is also reporting that Office 2007 support in Windows Mobile won’t be coming until the middle of 2007.

So what is a good early adopter to do? I would suggest setting the default save behavior in your Office 2007 applications to save to the 97 – 2003 document formats. To do this, click the Office button, click on Word / Excel / PowerPoint Options, then choose “Save”. Then set the default save format to 97 – 2003.

My suggestion is to leave it at this setting throughout next year until these compatability issues get resolved across the board. It will simplify your file sharing amongst peers greatly.

Thanks to James Kendrick for the CNET link.

If you have been waiting for an opportunity to try the official versions of Office 2007 and OneNote 2007, your wait is over.

Head on over to TryMicrosoftOffice.com and get to downloading the 60 day trials..

Thanks for finding the link, Matt.

If you’re interested in getting a copy of Windows Vista Business Edition or Office 2007 for free (naturally there is a catch), you might want to check this out. If you register with the Power Together Campaign and participate in at least 3 qualifying webcasts (for each product). Here are some of the details:

* The Power Together Campaign consists of two (2) offers, the Windows Vista Business Offer and the Microsoft Office Professional 2007 Offer, and is open only to legal residents of the 50 United States (includes District of Columbia) 18 years of age or older. You are not eligible to receive these offers if you or your employer is a participant in the Microsoft Partner Program or the Microsoft Developer Network. To be eligible to receive Windows Vista Business, you must register at www.powertogether.com and participate in at least three (3) qualifying web casts and/or virtual lab sessions within 30 days of registration. To be eligible to receive Microsoft Office Professional 2007, you must register at www.powertogether.com and participate in at least three (3) qualifying web casts and/or virtual lab sessions within 30 days of registration.

Here’s the site link with much more info

Via GBM reader Fred Beiderbecke.

This weekend, I posted 6 tips on how to improve the touch experience on Ultra-Mobile PCs and Tablet PCs.

Craig Pringle, a fellow Tablet PC MVP, has written a 5 part series on this subject, and goes into more depth from an application perspective. I encourage you to check out Craig's posts - great stuff:

• Getting More from a Small Screen Tablet - Part1: The OS
• Getting More from a Small Screen Tablet - Part 2: Mind Manager
• Getting More from a Small Screen Tablet - Part 3: Office, IE et al
• Getting More from a Small Screen Tablet - Part 4: ActiveWords
• Getting More from a Small Screen Tablet - Part 5: TEO

Well, my Tablet PC couldn't be happier - I'm downloading the RTM versions of Office Professional 2007 and OneNote 2007 via MSDN right now. This is only available to those who have an MSDN subscription, which is a lot of folks!

Vista is not available as of this writing, but I'm continuing to check.

• UPDATE: You do have to uninstall any beta versions of Office 2007 or OneNote 2007 prior to installing the RTM versions. This includes  any Office peripheral add-ins like the PDF / XPS add-in. The availability of Office 2007 on MSDN is up and down. Fortunately, I was able to get in at a good time. Keep checking back.
• My first impression after installing Office 2007 and OneNote 2007 is that it seems alot of faster, especially the start-up.
• Here is the updated Save As XPS / PDF Add-in for Office 2007 and screen shots from the Office install.

If you have been following any of the developments for Office 2007 (no small ‘s’ here) you know that Jensen Harris of Microsoft has been blogging up a storm on any and all topics that relate to the more than significant UI changes that are offered in the new suite. In fact he says he’s published over 200 blog entries. In all honesty there is more info in these blog posts than I think could ever really be digested by a mere mortal, but this is a treasure trove of good information. How Jensen approached this effort is a stunning example of how a company can use a blog to inform and educate its customers and should set an example that others should follow. Bravo.

Patrick Schmid of pschmid.net had compiled a lovely tablet of contents for all of these posts, and Jensen is not only grateful for Patrick’s efforts, but I’m guessing quite relieved. In any event you can check out this excellent resource on either Patrick or Jensen’s blogs. I’d keep it handy for when you take that Office 2007 plunge.

Much appreciation to Lora Heiny for letting us know that Vista RTM and Office 2007 RTM will be available for download on MSDN within the next week.

I'm expecting to hear constant F5 refreshes throughout the internet over the next couple of days. Many of them will be from me!

Except for doing some Camtasia Screen recordings in XP, I have not gone back to XP since installing RC1. I've heard from folks who have gone back that they miss Vista a lot.

Via Microsoft

Microsoft Office 2007 (no, I’m still not using the silly name with the small ‘s’) went gold with a release to manufacturing today. From the release:

Microsoft Corp. today announced the completion of the 2007 Microsoft^® Office system code and confirmed its release to manufacturing (RTM). This gold code milestone concludes the largest Microsoft Office beta program to date, with more than 3.5 million people downloading Beta 2. The unprecedented quantity of feedback from beta testers and customers helped the Office development team effectively validate product quality and optimize performance. Microsoft Office RTM also marks a critical step toward worldwide business availability of the 2007 Office system, Windows Vista™ operating system and Exchange Server 2007 on Nov. 30, 2006. To underscore the significance of this new day for business, Microsoft executives will participate in events around the globe, including an event with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in New York. General availability of the products will follow in early 2007.

“We’ve crossed the development finish line, and the team deserves to celebrate,” said Jeff Raikes, president of the Microsoft Business Division. “The 2007 Microsoft Office system RTM completes the most significant improvements to the products in more than a decade. It’s rewarding to be able to send this release off to our customers and help them take the next big leap forward in productivity.”

For those subscribed to MSDN and wondering when it will be available this is what appears on the home page:

Windows Vista and Office 2007 will be available through MSDN Subscriber downloads within 7 days of release to manufacture (RTM). MSDN Subscriptions is committed to making new content available to our subscribers as soon as is practical.

Oh my goodness. Techmeme is alive with news that Microsoft has released some pictures of… wait for it…. the packaging of Vista and Office 2007. Everyone is excited. Everyone is posting. Everyone is….. hang on. I know things are heating up with RTM presumably just around the corner, but getting this excited about a product box just seems a little silly, don’t cha think? I’d rather know what is in the box.

Lots of talk around the Internet that there is one more build of Vista before it goes RTM (release to manufacturing.) And then there’s this little website promising something on November 9.

I wonder what that could be?

I’ve been off again/on again with Office 2007 (no, I’m still not using that silly new name with the small ‘s’) simply because earlier builds seemed to cause more problems than they were worth for me on my Toshiba M200 Tablet PC. I use the M200 as my main computer, or as some call it production machine, and I just couldn’t take the chance. I have been using OneNote 2007 for quite awhile and had no real issues there.  (Consequently I wont’ be commenting on OneNote 2007 in this article.) But with the release of the Technical Refresh of Office 2007, I decided to give it another go this weekend. I’m happy to report that things are working very well with the B2TR and I’m beginning to see the promise of working with Office 2007 on a Tablet PC. Awhile ago, on Life On The Wicked Stage: Act 2, I published this article, Office 2003 and Ink: The Things We Assume. This article begins that same exploration for me with Office 2007, although I have in no way used it as much as I had the earlier edition before I authored that article. So, as I have only been at this a few days, this is more like a first look than a review.

Word 2007: The inking experience is so much easier and intuitive compared to Office 2003. Although why in the world the Start Inking button is somewhat difficult to discover because of the counter intuitive location under the Review tab on the ribbon is beyond me. (This occurs in Excel and Powerpoint as well.) On some levels that makes sense I guess, as this is where markup would occur, but if I want to start inking a document from scratch, it doesn’t. Not a big thing, but a niggle. What is most noticeable is that you no longer have to deal with the expanding box when inking into a document. You just start inking. Amazing how far this has come from Office XP (remember those days?)  I’ve mentioned before that the Ribbon feels much more pen-centric and now that I’ve actually put it to the test in a couple of days of real work, that is indeed the case.

Annotating, markup and commenting in Word 2007 is also much easier. In Office 2003 you selected a button off of a toolbar and did your work. Again, here the commands are on the Ribbon under the Review tab. Inserting an Ink Comment has its own button and works much easier than it did in 2003. Highlighting and Marking up a document seems easier to me as well and you can do so from the Start Inking button, simply by adding ink highlights or markups to a typed document.

Outlook: You have the same functionality using Word 2007 as your email editor as you do in creating a regular Word document with one exception. The Ribbon is there and different from Word and more intuitive, you can find the Start Inking button right on the Message tab, not under a Review Tab. Interesting. Again, Inking an email is much easier as no expanding text box appears and you just start inking right in the body of your email. What’s missing is access to adding Ink Comments, although I just don’t expect people do much of that with email, so that is really a minor observance, not a niggle. You can certainly markup a text email if you like, and as GBM colleague Matt Faulkner has pointed out, when you start inking in an email, by default you are given a page with lines to help you keep your ink in line. (Although that takes away some of the fun of scribbling an email.)  The lines disappear when you return to the body of your email by turning off the Ink Tools.

Microsoft Excel: You can find the same Start Inking button under the review tab in Microsoft Excel. Although intriguingly it doesn’t allow you to insert ink directly into a cell, instead serving as a mark up tool. I don’t think I’m missing anything here, but if someone sees something else let me know. An annoying niggle here is that when you close the Ink Tools in both Excel and Word the Ribbon takes you back to the Home tab and not the Review Tab.

Powerpoint: Again you find the Start Inking button on the Ribbon under the Review Tab. You can ink directly on a slide, but intriguingly doing so doesn’t activate the text box you may be working with. Admittedly, I haven’t done much with Powerpoint 2007, so I’ve more to explore here.

Publisher: The Ribbon interface doesn’t carry through with Publisher. Too bad on an aesthetic front, but not really an issue from a desktop publishing point of view, in my opinion. Although I could see it being handy for markup under a Review tab, if you are sharing documents for review. I’ve done no work so far in Publisher 2007, so I can’t really comment much here.

Add-ins

Save as PDF add-in: One of the tasks I had before me today was to prepare and submit reports for a board meeting tomorrow. I receive the financial reports and print them to a PDF file from Excel. Using the Save as PDF add-in from Microsoft, this was a much quicker process than it used to be in Office 2003. This easily saved a good 10 seconds a document. Get the add-in if you do any distribution of documents in PDF format. Remember you can download add-ins to Save as PDF, Save as XPS, or Save as XPS or PDF.

TEO 3.0 is working like a charm. No issues, no problems. Great job, Josh.

Compatibility Pack: And if you’re in a shop that shares documents back and forth between Office 2007 and Office 2003, Microsoft has released a Compatibility Pack for Office 2007 that allows you to open 2007 documents in ealier versions of the office suite. Check it out here.

I’m looking forward to Loren working up a new build of Ink-Gestures, as this is one program that I regret leaving behind now that I’ve made the switch to Office 2007. I’d also like to see TipX, the Excel add-in updated as well.

Additional Thoughts

Some other things I’ve noticed. And as a point of reference, I uninstalled all the Office 2003 apps before making the switch. As another point of reference I’m still using XP as the operating system and not Vista.

• Intriguingly Outlook 2007 in this Technical Refresh, runs quicker and smoother than the Office 2003 version. Before making the switch, I had gone through and forced an archive in Outlook, and also cleaned up a number of folders. Following which, I compressed the Outlook .pst file and the archive.pst file. (By the way, that procedure always makes Outlook run snappier) I had done this a couple of days before making the switch, using Outlook 2003 in the interim. So the noted improvement in speed isn’t due just to that procedure.
• When opening Word 2007, I occasionally see a delay in the Ribbon appearing. This is totally random and not reproducible with any regularity. I don’t see that same delay with Excel.
• Attaching documents to an email works more quickly in Outlook 2007 than it did with Outlook 2003.
• The Ribbon really grows on you (at least it does in my case) when you use it regularly.

So, I’ve made the switch, (small ‘s’ or no) and I’m not going back. Things appear to be stable enough for me to keep Office 2007 as my working Office suite. Certainly the Inking experience is much improved and of course, this is a key aspect in making that move. We’ve still got a ways to go for complete transparency, but we are indeed getting closer.

If you are having issues with B2TR, you might want to check out Patrick Schmid’s list of issues and work arounds. Thanks to Marc Orchant for that link. 

One feature that was added in the Outlook 2007 TR today that will greatly benefit me and my chicken scratch…  guide lines while inking an e-mail!!

While I feel they look a little too faint (maybe it is just my screen), this is a welcome addition.  I know it won’t help my penman ship, but at least it will be straight…  What do you all think?  Do you like them??

Click image for larger picture